A Janus-faced friend: Oscar Wilde and modern Greece's queer future
Oscar Wilde spent the first two decades of his life learning about Greece’s history before he ever set foot in the country. But his Philhellenism went beyond mere fascination with antiquity. This chapter examines his complex attitude towards the contemporary philhellenic scene. It argues that Wilde’...
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| Format: | Book section |
| Language: | English |
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Routledge
2024
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| _version_ | 1826314588603285504 |
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| author | Mendelssohn, M |
| author2 | Mitsi, E |
| author_facet | Mitsi, E Mendelssohn, M |
| author_sort | Mendelssohn, M |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Oscar Wilde spent the first two decades of his life learning about Greece’s history before he ever set foot in the country. But his Philhellenism went beyond mere fascination with antiquity. This chapter examines his complex attitude towards the contemporary philhellenic scene. It argues that Wilde’s sustained attention to contemporary Greek geopolitics in his poems and travel writings, his documentation of same-sex desire, and his interventions within late nineteenth-century debates about classical culture reveal a model of time that fuses past, present, and future. Wilde’s Janus-headed approach to Modern Greece persisted throughout his career and was marked by keen attention to temporal and geographical tensions, particularly between Greek history and the modern world. Often in his works, there is a dynamic interplay between historical events, personal experience, and a not-yet-here queer future. Considered more broadly, Wilde’s intellectual practices regarding Modern Greece align with queer temporalities described by Elizabeth Freeman, Heather Love, J. Jack Halberstam, and José Esteban Muñoz. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-25T04:34:49Z |
| format | Book section |
| id | oxford-uuid:46307d88-8425-4a29-b427-cea4fc35835e |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-25T04:34:49Z |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| publisher | Routledge |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:46307d88-8425-4a29-b427-cea4fc35835e2024-09-20T11:39:48ZA Janus-faced friend: Oscar Wilde and modern Greece's queer futureBook sectionhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_1843uuid:46307d88-8425-4a29-b427-cea4fc35835eEnglishSymplectic ElementsRoutledge2024Mendelssohn, MMitsi, EDespotopoulou, AOscar Wilde spent the first two decades of his life learning about Greece’s history before he ever set foot in the country. But his Philhellenism went beyond mere fascination with antiquity. This chapter examines his complex attitude towards the contemporary philhellenic scene. It argues that Wilde’s sustained attention to contemporary Greek geopolitics in his poems and travel writings, his documentation of same-sex desire, and his interventions within late nineteenth-century debates about classical culture reveal a model of time that fuses past, present, and future. Wilde’s Janus-headed approach to Modern Greece persisted throughout his career and was marked by keen attention to temporal and geographical tensions, particularly between Greek history and the modern world. Often in his works, there is a dynamic interplay between historical events, personal experience, and a not-yet-here queer future. Considered more broadly, Wilde’s intellectual practices regarding Modern Greece align with queer temporalities described by Elizabeth Freeman, Heather Love, J. Jack Halberstam, and José Esteban Muñoz. |
| spellingShingle | Mendelssohn, M A Janus-faced friend: Oscar Wilde and modern Greece's queer future |
| title | A Janus-faced friend: Oscar Wilde and modern Greece's queer future |
| title_full | A Janus-faced friend: Oscar Wilde and modern Greece's queer future |
| title_fullStr | A Janus-faced friend: Oscar Wilde and modern Greece's queer future |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Janus-faced friend: Oscar Wilde and modern Greece's queer future |
| title_short | A Janus-faced friend: Oscar Wilde and modern Greece's queer future |
| title_sort | janus faced friend oscar wilde and modern greece s queer future |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT mendelssohnm ajanusfacedfriendoscarwildeandmoderngreecesqueerfuture AT mendelssohnm janusfacedfriendoscarwildeandmoderngreecesqueerfuture |